Exploring, eating and writing about good food on Canada's west coast

I'll admit it. I have an on-going love affair with Mojito cocktails and my devotion knows no bounds. I love them so much I actually started growing my own mint so I could make them more often, and have been known to show up at summer parties with a bag full of limes, a bottle of rum and a handful of fresh mint. I even put fresh lime slices and mint in my water bottle when I play beach volleyball (delicious, by the way). Sadly, when the warm beach days end, many fair-weather Mojito drinkers turn their backs on this refreshing muddle of flavours. But not this girl!

With the Christmas holidays fast approaching, and visions of cookie exchanges dancing in my head recently, I decided to bring together all those Mojito flavours that I love and bake them into a festive cookie. Then, when I heard that Manitoba Canola Growers and Food Bloggers of Canada had put out the call for canola oil-based holiday cookie recipes, I knew it was time for me to get baking.

Using canola oil instead of butter in a cookie may not be something that you're used to, but it's really worth trying, both for the health benefits and for the great things it does to a cookie's flavour and texture. Using canola oil in place of butter gave my cookies a beautiful chewy interior and lovely crisp bite. And there's another benefit that hadn't even occurred to me until I started baking - using canola oil means no lugging out the hand mixer to beat butter and sugar, and no irritating beater washing afterwards. Instead, it's just a few easy flips of a whisk and spoon through the ingredients, saving loads of time and making for an easy, quick to make holiday treat.

Rolling each cookie in sugar before baking adds to the enticing texture of the cookie, as well as giving it an extra holiday sparkle. You can also add a pinch of lime zest to the sugar for a little extra lime zing and a pop of colour. While I do love the flavour fresh mint brings to the party, if you don't have any on hand, an 1/8 of a teaspoon of peppermint extract will do the trick.

Thanks for sharing your passion for mint, limes and all things fresh n' fun! What a truly unique flavour combination for a cookie. I would just love to grab one off the plate and have a taste.
Best of luck in the contest.
Be Well...Jenn